Lustmord is a Blackened Death Metal band currently based in Phoenix Arizona. The band was founded in 2000 by Anthony Lustmord, Cory Stavinski, and Adam Medina in Blythe California. Over the last several years the band has transformed from a small town metal band to one of the most well known and respected metal acts in the world.
Lustmord has released 4 full length albums, as well as several splits, demos, and eps making a total of 22 albums to date (10/8/2012) The band is currently working on their 5th full length (23rd total album) "The Walking Apocalypse". The album is being released by the bands label Lustmord Entertainment (distributed through Universal Music Group)
Over the last 12 years the band has supported tours for acts such as Slayer, Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under, Deicide, Monstrosity, Obituary, Lobotomy, Exhumed, Impaled, and many more. The band has headlined their own tours in North and South America, as well as in Europe.
The band got together to discuss what type of band they are and what they have been working on as far as their new release is concerned and just what the future holds for them and much more!
1. What type of band are you?
To put it simply we're an "Old School Blackened Death Metal Band." We have influences from all over the metal spectrum that culminate in a fresh unique sound that isn't often heard in today's "brutal" or "death grind" obsessed death metal scene.
2. Tell us the brief history of your band.
The band was formed in 2000. We have toured in supporting and headlining roles in North and South America, and Europe. Since forming we've released 22 albums (a mix of full lengths, eps, demos, and splits) we have been signed with many labels over the years, some of those labels are still friendly with us today and we have a lot of respect for them and their business model. Others not so much...We have performed more than 2,000 shows with giants such as Megadeth, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under, Nile, Monstrosity, Obituary, Danzig, and many more. To sum it all up, we're a hard working metal band based out of Phoenix Arizona. We are currently signed to a promotion and distribution deal with Universal Music Group,
Currently our line up consists of Daniel Beck on drums, Rock Rollain on bass, Anthony Lustmord on vocals. We also have Ivan (Graven) on guitar for us for a bit. Ivan is a former member of the Black Metal band Kult Of Thorn. He is currently in an industrial band called Element A440, which they just won the Project Independent contest this year so they're currently doing a big 9 week US tour. IVan was previously in Lustmord back in 2010 for a little bit, he filled in for Rock on Bass for a couple of shows.
3. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Our songs range from a variety of things, we like to sort of re-invent our sound every so often to keep things fresh. When the band first started we were more of a Doom/Death band, as time went on it was more a brutal death style, then a little grind so the themes sort of fell into place with the style we were working in. For the past couple years we've been pushing more of a personal feel to the songs with themes about grief, loss, possession (demonic and otherwise.) Then for fun we throw in the murder, rape and zombie stuff to keep it from getting too serious.
4. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Yes we have always done our own songwriting. We each have input on the songs. In our current line-up the songwriting is pretty easy. It starts with either a riff or drum beat and we develop that and give it structure. After it's kicked around for a bit we normally start to get more critical of the idea as a whole and really delve into it until it fits both our original idea as well as the band's needs. Once we have the beat and riff together I'll either assign lyrics I already have or write new ones to fit the song then we work on timing and accents and rolls and the little personal touches we like to fit into all of our songs either in a subtle
or obvious way. The process at a whole can take anywhere from a couple hours up to a couple months depending on the song.
5. Who are your musical influences?
The band has a variety of influences, I wont take up too much time listing them all because when it comes down to it we like to think we have our own signature sound. Some have been mentioned in this interview already, but Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Dismember, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Burzum, Immortal, Incantation, Acheron, Master, Nile, Catamenia, Kalmah, Nine Inch Nails, Laaz Rocket, Motley Crue, The Loudness, Accept, Motorhead, Fastway, Keel, Kiss, Darkthrone, Emperor, Murder Squad, Rape Pillage and Burn, BloodHave, WOmb Raiders, De Kinderlokkers, Chronic Infection, Disgorge (US and MEXICO) Dimensional Psychosis, Embalmer, Napalm Death, Type O Negative, Danzig, Misfits, Steve Eggs/Pile Of Eggs/Schnauzer, Nunslaughter, Pantera, Peter Murphy, George Michael, Wamm, Judy Garland, Tristania, Theatre Of Tragedy, Oasis, Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, and the list can go on and on and on. Rather than dwelling on the works that others have done, I'd like to focus on the works of the future and with a little
luck, Lustmord will have influenced others to achieve just as others have influenced us.
6. Tell me about your new album.
We had planned to release an EP back in March on the label Itchy Metal Entertainment, however we had an issue with our now former guitarist, without going too much into detail he held up the release of the album and we were unable to release it in March. Since then, Itchy has gone out of business so we wont be doing the release with them...However the album is called "Trapped In Purgatory" artwork was done by moonringdesigns.com all the tracks were recorded, mixed, and mastered by Michael Beck at Sound Vision Recording Studio in Tempe Arizona (except Shadows Of The Sun, which was recorded at Cosmic Soup Recording by Jeremy Daniel in Glendale Arizona and Michael Beck mixed and mastered the track.
7. How would you describe the overall sound of this album?
We all have different musical influences so I think the overall sound is unique. There are also Four different guitarists on this album, so it was a challenge to get it to sound consistent. We attribute that for the most part to Michael Beck, but also to the core members of the band (Dan, Rock and Anthony) for doing what each member does best and incorporate what the guitarist were doing with what we did, to bring a more fluid sound. We wanted to go for an Old School Death Metal sound with elements of Black Metal. So think Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Dismember style.
8. What would you say is your favorite track off it?
I like Zombie Disease a lot. It's one of my favorite songs and it's a song that was heavily pushed and was on a soundtrack to a horror film. Plus it's just a fun song to play and the lyrics are some of my favorite.
9. Did the band have any definitive goals they were shooting for before the recording process began for this album?
Mostly we wanted to record some quality music. We have goals in terms of sales and how well we want the album to be accepted by the public but that is sort of secondary (at least to me *ANTHONY) As long as we make music that we're happy with and proud of it's a success. Now if we end up selling enough copies to further our agenda and make some decent money and to help us tour and everything else then we'll gladly accept that!
10. Are you using any new instrumentation you've never used in the recording process before?
No new instruments, just a new writing style. We are introducing a little more black metal into our style. The guitar riffs are more in that direction. Which will open up Dan's drumming and my vocals to do slightly different things. Rock also likes to put "ultra low" bass in each song in certain sections just to add something
different. On our most recent track "In One-HUndred Years" (it's a remake with our current line up) Dan did use some chimes.
11. When did you start writing for this album? How was the songwriting process different/similar to previous Lustmord albums?
Well this new album has songs we recorded in 2009, and 2013 so technically you could put it back to 09. The songs were just unreleased on any album and we wanted to get them out. In terms of the process it was all pretty similar, with this line-up it takes us a little longer to finish a song, we're all old so we forget certain parts or we're picky about them and want them to be a certain way so we work it until it's right. So it takes longer but that's part of maturing as an artist I think.
12. Can you go into one or two tracks on the new album? If so, can you give us the track title and brief description of how the track sounds and how it came about?
I'll talk about what is going to be our main single off the album. It's called Zombie Disease. This song was used on the soundtrack for a horror/zombie film FEED. We had a guitarist in the band named Michael Perkins, this guy came from a Thrash background and wasn't all that familiar with Death or Black Metal. So we gave him some homework, told him to listen to Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Catamenia, Kalmah, Dismember, Obituary and try to come up with some riffs that sound similar to something they would write. He came back after a week or two and had a few ideas which Dan and I told him which ones were best and then gave him our feedback on the riff and how certain things should go in certain places and we pretty much picked a section of the riff and wrote and arranged the track around it. It turned out sounding really cool and overall I think the end product will speak for itself. We also had John Cason of Exiled/Ritual Steel come in for that track and do some harmonizing vocals, and Nasa Rocket Scientist Candy Masters came in to perform Ultra Low Bass and give it Nasa certification. This song was played in space before Anthrax was played on Mars! So Lustmord won the Space Race as far as we're concerned.
The other track I want to talk about is our the remake of In One-Hundred Years. Originally we had no plans on remaking this song, however with the departure of our last guitarist we wanted to have a strong song that we could introduce our new guitarist Ivan on. However we didn't have a lot of time as Ivan was getting ready to head out on tour with Element A440, so he already knew that song from us performing it live and we decided to re-record it and get our current line up on a track we're putting on the album. This has always been a strong song and when we play it live people have always loved it. It's a long track, around 6 mins 20 seconds or so. It shows a few different genres from death, black metal, and kind of doom. It's certainly a song that I think a lot of people are going to be impressed with. The original version is from back when Lustmord first started so I think the remake was something that overall was a good idea.
13. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Official Sites:
www.lustmord.us
www.facebook.com/lustmordofficial
www.twitter.com/lustmord666
www.themord.bigcartel.com
Soon when the album is released it's going to be released via Universal Music Group Distribution, so it will be available everywhere music is sold. Itunes, Amazon, and all the other
usual places.
14. What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
The EP is finished, just waiting for the right time to put it out. So getting it out is going to be our first plan/goal. After that we're going to slow play it a bit, not rushing too much. We're going to tour a little to support it, on select shows/festivals. I'll give you an exclusive here, we're about to sign a deal with Phoenix Rising Management which is going to up our game a great deal in the publicity/promotion, and touring departments. Smash Mouth Records/Phoenix Rising is run by my long time friend and former manager James McComas, who used to own Blind Prophecy Records, Ruins Of Old Management, New World Artist Music Group, and Full Force Entertainment. So he has the experience, contacts, and ability to help push the band to that next level.
After we release and tour on the EP, we're going to get started (around April 2014) working on our full length album. Plans for a major tour supporting one of the biggest bands in the industry have already begun and has pretty much been confirmed, just waiting to sign the paperwork on it. Which sadly I can't say anymore about that until the contracts are signed.
So until all of that happens, we're going to build our merch and work on promotion.
Also, this wasn't one of your questions but we would like to throw out a quick shout out to a few friends
Michael Beck/Sound Vision Recording Studios- https://www.facebook.com/pages/SoundVision-Recording-Studios/148604465207183
Todd Murdock/Murdock's Trinity Records- https://www.facebook.com/MurdocksTrinity
James McComas/Smash Mouth Records/Phoenix Rising Management- https://www.facebook.com/SmashMouthRecordsArtisManagement
Joesph Leivas/Hypatia- https://www.facebook.com/hypatia.azmetal?fref=ts
Element A440- https://www.facebook.com/elementa440.music
MadDog and Dark Disciple- https://www.facebook.com/DarkDisciple
Scourge/Kult Of Thorn- https://www.facebook.com/kultofthorn
Murder Medusa- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Murder-Medusa/571571856206905
Charles Klee- https://www.facebook.com/AZMusicMan?fref=ts
Rick Vasquez/Deep Murder Productions- https://www.facebook.com/Rickvasquez77?fref=ts
Lynn Moll and the rest of the NYDM family!- https://www.facebook.com/lynnlovesmetal?fref=ts
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